Bush’s substitute speaker: Hillary Clinton

Former President George W. Bush was supposed to give a speech to Ameriprise Financial conference in Boston next week but had to bow out because he’s recovering from surgery on a bum knee. But the financial services firm was able to secure a prominent substitute speaker: Hillary Clinton.

Clinton’s speech, confirmed by two sources familiar with the event, is the latest in a series of paid speaking-circuit gigs for the former secretary of state and likely 2016 presidential contender, who charges upward of $200,000 to deliver remarks or take part in question-and-answer sessions.

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Bush, who has also been on the paid speaking circuit, was anticipated as the main attraction at the event, sources said. But a Bush aide confirmed that he had to drop out after he had a second partial knee replacement surgery last weekend in Chicago. His first surgery, on the other knee, was in May.

So Clinton was tapped as the replacement. The precise date of her speech wasn’t immediately clear, but the conference is July 23-27.

Clinton aides declined to comment. An Ameriprise spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ameriprise is a financial services firm that was spun off from American Express almost a decade ago.

Clinton has been under fire for her paid speeches, including those to more than a half-dozen universities, some of which receive public funding, since she left the State a Department in early 2013. She has said she donated the speaking fees to her family’s foundation.

But critics have said there’s a lack of transparency to that process and have raised questions about whether her fees were paid using tuition money at a time when student debt for college loans is on the rise.

One school, the University at Buffalo, on Tuesday released her contract from an October 2013 speech, for which she was paid $275,000. The money came from the school’s foundation, according to the document. An upstate lawmaker had been critical of the speech and had urged the release of information, which came after a public information request from the Public Accountability Initiative in New York.

Clinton’s contract with the school, which was submitted through the Harry Walker Agency, required the school to hire a stenographer to transcribe the speech, but forbade taping it. The agreement also stipulated that the media would not have access to Clinton.

The contract also had a stipulation that Clinton’s fee would go to the Clinton Foundation. Some of her critics have asked for proof as to whether she gave the money over in real time, or at all.